AMD motherboards

[SCNK]

Hello,

I just wanted to see what everyone's opinions are on the PCI-E mobo's for AMD 64's (socket 939)? Basically to cut to the chase are the worth the $100+ more that they cost over the standard mobos.

I'm trying to decide on a mobo to go with an AMD 64 3200+, and whether or not to fork out the extra for the PCI-E compatability is pretty much my last point of debate.

Thanks for any opinions and feedback you can throw my way,

SC

 

[philo67]

i posted a thread a while back about the pci-e vs agp and after a few days read an article that stated pcie are good but noth worth it now beacause they dont utilize the full bandwidth of the slot and agp is the same so the next few vid card upgrades will probably not reach that yet so you have about 5-6 steps at least of vid card production before that will come into play but for 100 more why not if you can spend it it will come in handy eventually as of now agp and pci-e are equall they both run at the same clock speeds and mhz as per my reading.. hope that helps some... late philo.....

 

[SCNK]

Philo,

thanks for the information...quite helpful.

I'm VERY new to the tech side of things, so I'm having to sort through a ton of information all at once, so I appreciate you taking the time to give me a rundown I can understand.

Looks like i'd be better off putting the extra $100 elsewhere.

compared to my ancient gateway pentium II 500mhz machine i'm on now, the new creation should be quite the change.

Thanks again

SC

 

[philo67]

Philo,

thanks for the information...quite helpful.

I'm VERY new to the tech side of things, so I'm having to sort through a ton of information all at once, so I appreciate you taking the time to give me a rundown I can understand.

Looks like i'd be better off putting the extra $100 elsewhere.

compared to my ancient gateway pentium II 500mhz machine i'm on now, the new creation should be quite the change.

Thanks again

SC

heres the reply that i got on agp.vs.pci-e

pci-e just doubles bandwidth and makes the connection multi-directional, as of yet the additional bandwidth and all the features of pci-e are unnecessary... top of the line cards of today don't even max out AGP 8x, so don't worry about this yet, id say it could be 2-3 years before we need the bandwidth from pci-e...


little more never hurt hope that helps...

 

[gaara]

As far as I am aware, there is only one card on the market right now (ATi x850XT) which utilizes PCI-e bandwidth.

AGP is still perfectly fine though, we are still yet to see a major leap between the two, and AGP can still more than handle most needs that todays games demand.

 

[MasterJason]

A Pci Express Motherboard will be more futureproof. A 939 3200+ will be very nice in that setup with a 6600gt. Pci Express can do Sli which greatly improves preformance.

 

[SCNK]

Ok, I think I have a good start here. If you all could give it a once over and see what video card you'd recomend and what memory you'd recomend, then I think it'll be time to place an order.

I decided to go ahead and go with the PCI-E capable motherboard for the sole reason that it will be a bit more future proof. What I need is a video card (PCI-E) that is capable of being ran parallel in a pair, as the motherboard is setup where it can run two video cards in such a manner. This will require me spending more than I had originally budgeted, but that's generally how things go when I get interested in something as I have done in this instance. LEADTEK GF6600GT

1. Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe (socket 939)

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket939/a8nsli-d/overview.htm

2. AMD 64, 3500+

3. 160GB WD hard drive

4. 1GB Memory (please advise on type/brand)

5. Video Cards: possibly Leadtek GF6600GT TDH's (again, please advise)

http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_px6600_gttdh_1.html

6. 420w Thermal Take power supply

With the given components I can't imagine myself thinking that I need to get into overclocking the machine (especially coming from this 500mhz intel into the above setup). It should be quite the change from what I'm used to as it is. However if OC'ing becomes more necessary as things progress I can't foresee any big changes that I'd have to make to be able to OC the setup.

I'm looking at a few different cases still, mainly thermal take and lian li cases. I am purchasing extra fans for the motherboard, cpu, and video card, in addition to the ones in the cases that I'm looking at, so cooling shouldn't be a problem.

Anyhow, I definitely need some help in the video card and memory departments, so if you all don't mind giving input on those I'd appreciate it. Also if there is anything else that screams "disaster waiting to happen" please let me know.

Thanks
SC